How to read or copy text from .docx/.odt/.doc files

Question

In my application, I want to read a document file (.doc or .odt or .docx) and store that text in a string. For that, I am using the code below:

string text;     
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(@"D:\Sample\Demo.docx", System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))
{
    text = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
}

But I am unable to read or copy proper text, as it shows like:

PK��!��x%��E��[Content_Types].xml �(��IO�0��H��W��p@5��r�Jqv�Ij/�ۿg�%j��)P.��y��tf�N&�QY��0��T9��w,� L!jk gs@�л��0!��Bp��Y�VJ�t�+��N�Kk��z�'(Ÿ��/I��X�|/F�L騏��^��w$¹ZIho|b��tŔ�r��+?�W��6V�7*�W$}�ë�DΧ��r�i��q�=��,��Fݜ��t�5+Z(��?�a�z��i�[!0�k��,}O��Ta�\� �m?�i�|��ж�AT�SB�;'m;y\9�"La��o� %��@k8��?,Fc� hL_\��̱�9I��!�=��m��TT��|P�̩}}�$�|�� =�|��}��PK��

How can I read or copy text from document files?

You have an MS Word document, not a text-document. It is not stored as text (technically it's a ZIP file). You need to use an API to access the document - e.g. the [Open XML SDK](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/bb448854.aspx) — RB., May 06 '16 at 12:50
Possible duplicate of [Read a Word Document Using c#](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15065053/read-a-word-document-using-c-sharp) — ihimv, May 06 '16 at 12:53
Quick n dirt version: Open as zip - extract word/document.xml - Throw away all the markup - voilà — a-ctor, May 06 '16 at 12:57
Possible duplicate of [Read word document in C#](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5130911/read-word-document-in-c-sharp) — alex, May 06 '16 at 13:01
See my answer for openoffice documents http://stackoverflow.com/a/38352469/3462919 — Porkopek, Jul 13 '16 at 13:08

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '16 at 12:52

For that you need to use different libraries

Example for reading data from Word document using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word

using System;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
    // Open a doc file.
    Application application = new Application();
    Document document = application.Documents.Open("C:\\word.doc");

    // Loop through all words in the document.
    int count = document.Words.Count;
    for (int i = 1; i <= count; i++)
    {
        // Write the word.
        string text = document.Words[i].Text;
        Console.WriteLine("Word {0} = {1}", i, text);
    }
    // Close word.
    application.Quit();
    }
}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '20 at 17:40

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word is very slow for large document. So i suggest OpenXml. For Using OpenXml you should install it.

Install with Package Manager:

Install-Package DocumentFormat.OpenXml -Version 2.8.1

2.Use OpenWordprocessingDocumentReadonly function:

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;
namespace Readdocx
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string mytext = OpenWordprocessingDocumentReadonly("mytext.docx");
        }
        public static string OpenWordprocessingDocumentReadonly(string filepath)
        {
            // Open a WordprocessingDocument based on a filepath.
            using (WordprocessingDocument wordDocument =
                WordprocessingDocument.Open(filepath, false))
            {
                // Assign a reference to the existing document body.  
                Body body = wordDocument.MainDocumentPart.Document.Body;
                //text of Docx file 
                return body.InnerText.ToString();
             }
            return "-1";
        }
    }
}

Hi, will this help to read page by page content? – Hi Ten Nov 15 '21 at 08:05 — Hi Ten, Nov 15 '21 at 08:05

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 06 '16 at 12:52

0

The Microsoft DocX-Format is a container and does not hold the data in simple plaintext (which your StreamReader tries to read.

You should consider using a third-party-library like the following: https://docx.codeplex.com/

answered May 06 '16 at 12:52

Marco de Abreu

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How to read or copy text from .docx/.odt/.doc files

3 Answers3